July 27, 2015 by admin

Terror attack in Gurdaspur; police SP among 7 killed

Dinanagar (Gurdaspur), July 27
At least seven persons, including an SP, were killed and 18 injured when heavily-armed terrorists wearing army fatigues hijacked a car in Dinanagar town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district and reached a bus stand, where they opened fire before storming a police station in the town.
Three terrorists were killed in the ensuing gunbattle, after which there was no sound from the place where they were holed up. The police had not yet confirmed if there were any more terrorists hiding.
Intelligence inputs suggested that the terrorists could have come from Narowal in Pakistan and made their way south after infiltrating from the Jammu-Samba area.
Punjab Police SP (Detective) Baljit Singh, posted at Gurdaspur, was said to be among those killed. Besides, three other policemen and three civilians were shot dead.
The bodies of two Home Guards could be seen on the rooftop of the police station. The three civilians killed were identified as Ghulam Rasool, Asha Rani and Amarjit Singh.
The 18 injured included four policemen. Dinanagar police station SHO Mukhtiar Singh was among them.
After hours of intermittent exchange of fire with the terrorists, there were reports that the police and Army troops who had responded to the situation had stepped back from the police station as they suspected the terrorists had bombs tied around them. They were also suspected to be carrying sophisticated telescopic rifles.
Punjab Police DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, assisted by ADGP-Intelligence H S Dhillon, was supervising the operation, which had not been handed over to the Army. Special forces of the Army and the NSG as well as Punjab Police commandos had taken up positions around Dinanagar police station, cordoning off the area.
The sequence of events, according to the police:
– Around 5:30 am, three or four terrorists wearing Army uniforms and heavily armed attempted to snatch a ‘tempo’, but did not succeed.
– At a dhaba, they next snatch a Maruti 800 car belonging to Kamaljit Singh, a resident of Dinanagar, who was shot at and injured.
– They drive off and fire at Pathankot Depot bus (PB-06-G-9569), going from Bamial to Chandigarh, injuring three persons: Satish Kumar, Raman and Suresh Kumar.
– Passersby at the spot, Tarun Gehrotra, Upjeet Singh, Satish Kumar, Raman, Suresh Kumar, Sardari Lal, Sarbjit Singh and Jarnail Singh, also injured in the firing.
– Terrorists next enter Dinanagar police station and open heavy fire, in which SHO Mukhtiar Singh, Head Constable Ram Lal, and Home Guard Rajinder Kumar are injured. Two Home Guards jawans are also killed in the exchange of fire.
– Indiscriminate fire by terrorists at the police station also killed two persons, Gulam Rasool and Asha Rani, undergoing treatment at the adjoining Kiran Hospital.
This was the first major terror attack in Punjab following the assassination of then Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995.
Sound of firing and grenades could be heard hours after the first shots were fired by the militants.
The police station, an adjoining government hospital, residential quarters inside the police station and nearby private houses were quickly cordoned off by security forces, including Army personnel.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he had spoken to D.K. Pathak, Director-General of the Border Security Force (BSF), and instructed him to step up the vigil on India-Pakistan border in the wake of the attack in Gurdaspur.
Minister of State for Home Kirren Rijiju told IANS in Delhi that “as of now there is no information regarding hostages being held. We are looking into it and once I get some more information, I will come out with it”.
The terrorists, numbering four, are believed to have come from Pakistan.
“We were hit by a burst of gunfire suddenly. I was hit on the shoulder. They are firing indiscriminately every five minutes,” a Punjab police official, who was injured in the attack, told media as he was being taken to the hospital.
Dinanagar town is about 15 km from the India-Pakistan border and 25 km from the border of Jammu and Kashmir state. It is about 235 km from Chandigarh.
Additional Director-General of Punjab Police, Dinkar Gupta, told media the “attack took the Dinanagar police by surprise”.
SP Baljit Singh, who was killed in the attack, hailed from Shahkot in Jalandhar. His family is currently living in Kapurthala. His father, Achhar Ram, who too was in the Punjab Police, had also died in an encounter.
Rail tragedy averted
In a related development, five live bombs were found on the Amritsar-Pathankot railway track.
The bombs were found by passersby on a bridge near Parmanand railway station on the Amritsar-Pathankot railway section, who informed security forces. Trains on the route were stopped immediately.
A major railway tragedy was averted as the bombs had been carefully wired to the railway track at a small bridge near Parmanand railway station, 5km from Dinanagar. A police spokesman told media that the army bomb disposal unit had defused the bombs.
A train, which was to pass over the track, was stopped just 200 metres from the spot where the bombs had been planted.